Polar Bear Gnaws At Research Cable In The Beaufort Sea

Three polar bears nearly ruined an Arctic research expedition when one of them gnawed on a very, very expensive cable earlier this month.

A video posted to YouTube on Tuesday shows a mother and her two cubs floating in the Beaufort Sea. One of them starts biting at a cable used in a sampling system, as esearchers aboard the CCGS Amundsen icebreaker try to shoo them away.

Eventually, the bear seems to lose interest, and all three slowly drift away as the video cuts out.

And that's a good thing — the equipment was valued at $200,000, CBC News reported.